That was one of the core sentiments expressed by Mark Copley, CEO of the European Federation of Energy Traders (EFET), in a discussion about how Europe’s new gas price cap will impact markets.

Copley stressed that despite Europe’s well-established regulatory framework, price caps and national interventions ultimately make a regulatory framework more risky and that translates into price premiums and decreased willingness to trade and invest in Europe.

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Price caps don’t address the supply problem

Copley explains that the price cap is a newly introduced market correction mechanism that places a cap on the price at which derivative contracts can be bought.

However, according to Copley, the price cap is not a solution to the supply and demand issue which he believes to be the cause of the current energy crisis.

“We warned against the introduction of price caps…because the energy crisis we have experienced over the past year to 18 months was around not having enough gas… or power and our view is very clearly that you need to tackle that by increasing supply or reducing demand.

“If we’re talking about increasing supply in the short term at least you have to make sure that LNG cargos reach Europe.”

Not only do price caps not address the issue of supply, but it also leads to negative consequences that could make the situation worse, says Copley.

Price caps could have negative consequences

Even though it’s too early to say what changes might result in market behaviour, Copley suggests that capping derivative prices could result in the following negative effects:

• Reducing the incentive for gas to flow to Europe and largely making markets other than Europe more attractive.
• Increasing the uncertainty in Europe’s regulatory framework means people are less likely to want to deliver gas to Europe.
• It reduces incentives to reduce demand.

We would expect to see traded volumes moving away from exchanges and towards over-the-counter markets, argues Copley. “People might also start looking to trade in venues outside of Europe, such as the UK, Singapore, or US.”

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Ultimately, there is a chance of a general increase in uncertainty, leading to traders being more risk-averse and deciding to trade less. This will lead to a fall in market liquidity, increasing market volatility and risk.

How safe are the safeguards?

Although attempts have been made to ensure the price cap is only triggered in exceptional circumstances, says Copley, there are some challenges around figuring out when it will be triggered and under what circumstances.

“It’s good that safeguards have been built in, but what we need to realise is that the cap doesn’t need to be triggered to have an effect on market behaviour. What we worry about is its effects of merely existing”.

“If you’re trying to hedge gas transactions long term, you’re thinking about what to buy and how to manage the risks associated with it. If you don’t know if the policy will be triggered, how the policy will be triggered, or in some cases how it will be implemented…all of that translates into an increase in risk and a greater unwillingness to trade.”

The way forward

According to Copley, despite the search for the magic bullet, there simply isn’t one.

In a crisis of short supply, there are however ways to alleviate the problem. He suggests expanding LNG capacity, resolving bottlenecks in the grid, making as much cross-border power available as possible, working with member states on security of supply arrangements and coordinating filling tenders.

Copley suggests that taking more time on policy-making is critical now. It’s time to carefully consider how to remove these temporary interventions and if this is done in consultation with stakeholders, it would be a measure welcomed by the market and would go a long way to rebuilding lost trust.

For more insights from Mark Copley, listen to the Energy Transitions podcast episode:

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The partnership will drive the development, commercialization and adoption of advanced, fully integrated solutions for plastic waste processing.

Sulzer says the move will allow it to offer complete recycling lines based on Fuenix’s Ecogy technology and Sulzer’s own separation and purification solutions.

The technology from Netherlands-based Fuenix Ecogy converts sorted end-of-life mixed plastic waste into high-value hydrocarbons with ‘virgin-like’ properties.

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The solution offers high recovery and conversion rates, enabling a high degree of circularity in the plastic value chain.

Fuenix Ecogy Group chief executive Sirt Mellema said the partnership with Sulzer “will be key to help us scale our technology and promote its global adoption, so that we can help create a circular economy for plastic waste”.

Suzanne Thoma, Executive Chair at Sulzer, added: “With the acquisition of a stake in Fuenix Ecogy we are enhancing our scope and portfolio in creating fully circular, zero-waste plastic value chains.

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While the conference and exposition officially begin on Tuesday, February 21, enthusiastic attendees from all over the globe flew in early to take in a tour of the Orlando Utilities Commission (OUC) Gardenia Innovation and Operations Center followed by a tour of the 740MW Cane Island Power Park.

Visit POWERGEN International in Orlando, Florida, 21-23 Feb 2023

Grid-edge R&D

OUC’s facility is where the municipal utility tests pre-commercialized or newly commercialized technology and includes a floating solar array, a vehicle-to-grid bi-directional charger, a 50-kW DC fast charger (soon to be upgraded to 120 kW), several Level 2 EV chargers, a 10-kW/40-kWh vanadium redox flow battery and two underground 8-kW/32-kWh flywheels.

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“We want to make sure we understand how they work, their operational characteristics and build new business cases around them before we put them in a position where they could be affecting our customers,” explained Rubin York, one of the three OUC engineers leading the tour.

In addition, OUC is testing a site controller that can operate the system in three main modes: PV smoothing, demand mitigation, which performs autonomous peak shaving, and contingency mode, which collects the assets into a microgrid.

“That is only possible thanks to these flywheels,” said York.

They go through a grid-forming bi-directional inverter which, in contingency mode, assess the frequency and voltage of the buildings and meters and disconnects the EV chargers, the PV inverter (per the IEEE standard), and any other load until the flywheels can output a good 60 hertz, 480-volt AC signal, said York. Once the flywheel generation is firm, OUC can slowly bring the loads back up and charge the EVs.

York also showed off the Cloud Impact Mapping System (CIMS), an in-house developed system that was designed to predict the ramp rate of solar PV as clouds come over and depart the solar PV. Should the technology scale, it could prove to be useful to electric utilities in Florida that are relying on a large amount of solar PV generation because Florida generally experiences a large amount of clouds.

“The goal is to build an array of these all around our territory, build a central repository, and have them effectively ‘hand off’ cloud systems to one another,” said York.

The OUC Gardenia site is also host to a rooftop solar array with bifacial solar panels and a solar parking canopy, which covers the parking lots for the facility.

Exceptional availability

After a quick bus ride and lunch, attendees toured the 740-MW Cane Island Power Park, which was available more than 90% of the time in 2021 and won an award for its exceptional availability.

Unit 3 of the park ran for nine months with no trips said Ken Rutter, COO of the Florida Municipal Power Authority (FMPA), which owns the plant. He added that the unit ran through Hurricane Ian and supplied power to customers who were able to accept it.

The POWERGEN group was split into four smaller groups and taken all throughout the park, viewing each generating unit, one turbine (that was not currently operating), condensers, cooling towers, the control center, and more. Rutter encouraged attendees to ask their tour guides anything at all – and they certainly took him up on that offer.

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The funding round was led by GM Ventures and Barclays Sustainable Impact Capital, with participation from SWEN CP and Siemens Energy Ventures. The investors will also act as strategic partners for GeoPura moving forward.

GeoPura offers an alternative to traditional diesel generators with its hydrogen power unit (HPU) technology used for temporary, supplementary, off-grid and backup power.

The firm generates hydrogen and transports the fuel to customers for use in its HPUs – customers simply rent the units and pay for the fuel used.

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The latest investment will enable mass manufacturing of HPUs and will increase the production of green hydrogen to fuel the units in the North East and throughout the UK.

The company also aims to bring a number of new products to market, addressing smaller and larger power requirements.

GeoPura chief executive Andrew Cunningham said the investment “allows us to build on our installed base of HPUs and hydrogen production infrastructure to stimulate the green hydrogen economy, and then expand the use of clean fuels into other hard-to-decarbonise areas of our energy system”.

“We have secured the right mix of investors, forming strategic partnerships that not only provide the funds to enable us to scale rapidly, but also the skills and resources to accelerate the transition to zero emission fuels.”

Why Europe’s head start on hydrogen is at risk

James Ferrier, Director of Principal Investments at Barclays Sustainable Impact Capital, said: “Whilst most of the focus in the UK is rightly on ‘greening’ our energy grid, industries which are reliant on fossil-fuel powered generators – such as construction, film production and events – should not be forgotten.

“Establishing tailored methods of off-grid green energy generation such as GeoPura’s Hydrogen Power Unit technology will be crucial for the decarbonisation of these industries, and we are excited to support GeoPura as they begin to scale.”

Kendra Rauschenberger, General Partner at Siemens Energy Ventures, said she has “worked alongside GeoPura from the early days” and added that “it has been incredible to see the development of this business as more customers turn to utilizing green hydrogen for their sustainable energy needs and commitments”.

GeoPura plans to deploy a fleet of over 3,600 HPUs by 2033 and is currently providing power to Balfour Beatty, HS2, National Grid and the BBC.

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A joint venture created to promote floating offshore windfarms in the Iberian Peninsula has announced its first project for Portugal.

IberBlue Wind has unveiled plans for a 990MW floating offshore windfarm off the coast of Figueira da Foz.

Called Botafogo after a 16^th century galleon that became known as the most powerful warship of its time, the windfarm will occupy an area of 359 km² and will have 55 wind turbines, each with a capacity of 18MW.

Figueira da Foz is one of five areas proposed by the Portuguese government for offshore renewable energy exploration.

IberBlue Wind vice-president Adrián de Andrés explained: “Figueira da Foz is a region with great potential.

“Besides the high wind strengths and the existing port infrastructure, it’s located near to the centre of the country where there is significant demand for energy from both industrial and private consumers”.

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IberBlue Wind says the development of the project will create thousands of jobs, most for development and construction and the rest for the operation and maintenance of turbines once oprational.

The Botafogo windfarm will be built on floating platforms anchored to the seabed allowing it to be located 30-50 km from the coast.

2GW of Iberian Peninsula potential

IberBlue Wind is a joint venture between Irish floating offshore wind company Simply Blue Group and Spanish companies Proes Consultores, the engineering division of Grupo Amper, and renewable energy developer FF New Energy Ventures.

It aims to develop at least 2GW of offshore wind capacity off the Iberian Peninsula using floating windfarms, each comprising 500MW or more.

IberBlue Wind announced a project in Spain last November. Nao Victoria will be in the Alboran Sea, off the coasts of Cadiz and Malaga, on an area of 310 km² and also with an installed capacity of 990MW.

The company says it is working on several other projects for the Iberian Peninsula which it plans to announce soon.

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This demonstration is the culmination of a $100 million research effort to develop next-generation concentrating solar-thermal power (CSP) plants and showcase storage technology that could provide one gigawatt of storage for one hour at a single plant.

“Next-generation CSP has the potential to be a game-changer,” said Alejandro Moreno, acting assistant secretary for energy efficiency and renewable energy. “This pilot facility will demonstrate how CSP systems can meet the challenges of providing long-duration energy storage while reducing costs and complexity for solar thermal technology. At the same time, it also provides a pathway to commercialization for industrial process heat.”

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DOE launched its Generation 3 (Gen3) CSP research effort in 2017, challenging the industry to develop and test new technologies to achieve high-temperature plants.

The best commercially available technologies, which use mirrors to concentrate sunlight and heat molten salt on top of a tower, can only reach 565°C. DOE’s Gen3 CSP research initiative evaluated all viable pathways to operate a plant that could reach 720°C. Based on research findings, DOE then selected Sandia to develop its technology, which uses sand-like ceramic particles instead of molten salt and can withstand temperatures greater than 800°C. These particles can be used to transfer and store heat or power a supercritical carbon dioxide (sCO₂) turbine. If successful, this type of solar power plant could provide 100MW of power continuously, around the clock, at low cost.

Sandia received $25 million to build, test, and operate this facility at the National Solar Thermal Test Facility in Albuquerque, NM. To accelerate deployment and commercialisation, Sandia is working with international researchers in Saudi Arabia and Australia to test variants of key system components. The pilot is expected to be completed in 2024 and will prove that a particle-based plant could achieve DOE’s goal of making electricity-plus-storage from CSP even more affordable at 5 cents per kilowatt-hour.

Originally published on renewableenergyworld.com

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This is according to the updated 2022 Electricity Statement of Opportunities (ESOO) report released by the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO).

The report provides a reliability update based on changes to generation capacity with the aim of ensuring timely investment to fill any forecasted gaps created by the country’s shift away from coal power.

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The report identifies two increases to reliability risks, namely:

• Increased risk in South Australia and Victoria from 2026-27, when Torrens Island B in South Australia is now expected to retire. Forecast reliability risks increase further from 2028-29 in Victoria when Yallourn Power Station is expected to retire, and in South Australia from 2030-31 when numerous gas-fired power stations are expected to retire.
• Increased risk in New South Wales in 2023-24 due to the advised delay to the commissioning of the Kurri Kurri gas-powered generator.

AEMO CEO Daniel Westerman said in a statement: “Since publishing the 2022 ESOO, short-term forecast reliability gaps in South Australia (2023-24) and Victoria (2024-25) have been filled by new gas, wind and battery developments, along with a delay to the retirement of an existing gas generator.”

“Reliability gaps begin to emerge against the Interim Reliability Measure from 2025 onwards. These gaps widen until all mainland states in the NEM are forecast to breach the reliability standard from 2027 onwards, with at least five coal power stations totalling approximately 13 per cent of the NEM’s total capacity expected to retire.

“Urgent and ongoing investment in renewable energy, long-duration storage and transmission is needed to reliably meet demand from Australian homes and businesses,” he said.

Westerman reiterated that investment in firming generation, such as pumped hydro, gas and long-duration storage will be critical to combat renewable intermittency and meet electricity demand without coal-fired power.

The updated ESOO report also highlights the risk of events when electricity demand may exceed supply, such as in the case of extreme weather and generation and transmission outages.

Westerman added that: “The NEM has a strong pipeline of proposed generation and storage projects, totalling three times today’s generation capacity,” and AEMO will continue to work with governments, industry and the community to manage risks as the power system transitions from coal.

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The dozens of power and utility professionals who make up the POWERGEN advisory committee have worked tirelessly for months to put together a compelling conference program.

The show program includes eight educational tracks: Decarbonization, Planning for the Electric Future, Nuclear’s Small Revolution, Unlocking Hydrogen’s Power Potential, The Evolving Power Plant, Energy Storage Deployments, Environmental and Emission Controls and Optimizing Plant Performance.  

These topics lead the conversation for how generators can evolve into cleaner and more sustainable sources as we set our sights on 2050.

Here are some sessions to note during the next few days:

• On Tuesday, Feb. 21, Black & Veatch will highlight a two-year study on the impacts of cycling and low-load generation on performance, heat rate, reliability and availability at combined cycle power plants. Some of the most intriguing findings from this study will be shared for the first time.
• Also that day, DTE Energy and MapEx will discuss a hybrid analytics solution that combines machine learning, advanced pattern recognition software with a physics-based heat balance “digital twin” solution to monitor and improve the performance and reliability of a combined heat and power (CHP) plant in Michigan.
• As energy storage systems are growing at an unprecedented pace, a panel including experts from Burns & McDonnell, UL and American Fire Technologies will address current codes and standards, as well as recent changes that all installers in the U.S. must adhere to before installing a system. 
• On Wednesday, Feb. 22, don’t miss a panel of experts who will address carbon capture, pipeline transport and geologic storage and their relevance to the power industry. The esteemed panel includes José Figueroa and Mark McKoy with the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL), Richard Esposito with Southern Company and Bob Slettehaugh with Kiewit.
• As part of our hydrogen track, Jeff Goldmeer of GE will provide a view of the environmental concerns, as well as potential solutions to prevent NOx emission increases as hydrogen is introduced in greater quantities as a fuel in gas turbines.
• Make sure not to miss a panel from Idaho National Laboratory (INL) and NuScale about the latter’s first small modular reactor (SMR) nuclear plant to begin operation in the U.S. The plant will deploy six, 77 MW modules to generate 462 MW of electricity. INL will provide a technical overview of the SMR design features and how they address traditional concerns in the deployment previous reactors.

Before the conference sessions begin and the exhibit hall opens, the Keynote on the morning of Feb. 21 will feature remarks by best-selling author and megatrends expert, Andrew Winston; Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer at Nuscale Power, Dr. José Reyes; SVP and CEO Duke Energy Florida and Midwest, Alex Glenn; and COO of OUC, Jan Aspuru.

The Keynote address is open to all attendees and exhibitors.

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According to Prysmian, extreme climate events like heavy rains and floods may cause deterioration to solar cables and failure with negative consequences on power generation capacity, reliability of power supplies and return on investment.

Prysmian performed extensive R&D to develop Prysolar with the aim of minimising cable failure due to unpredictable challenges from increasing solar applications.

Prysolar offers significant climate strength and a longer lifetime thanks to what Prysmian hails as a first-in-the-industry test protocol that certifies long term resistance in water for DC cables.

Also, operational efficiency is enhanced by the use of tailored solar string monitoring systems based on proprietary PRY-CAM technology.

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“Solar photovoltaic generation is set to cover more than 50% of the global electricity demand by 2050. Return on investment, asset efficiency, OPEX and Levelized Cost of Energy are the main and most critical priorities for our customers in the solar industry. Prysmian Prysolar, is the new generation of cables designed to provide our solar customers with peace of mind in these areas”, says Vanessa Alvarez, SVP industrial specialties, Prysmian Group

Prysmian will officially launch Prysolar at the Genera 2023 International Energy and Environment Fair taking place in Madrid from February 21 to 23, 2023.

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The project is planned for the Hunter‐Central Coast Renewable Energy Zone (REZ) as part of the NSW Government Electricity Infrastructure Roadmap.

It will be developed in stages to support the government’s deployment of renewable targets and progressive retirement of coal‐fired power stations in the area.

Project developers Newcastle Offshore Wind Energy Pty Ltd (NOWE) have been working with EDF Renewable on the project for the last 12 months and will continue as a partner to meet project milestones.

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CEO of EDF Renewables in Australia, Dave Johnson, said in a statement: “NOWE, based in Newcastle, has put in a lot of effort to build up their local development expertise and connect with the community and stakeholders, which puts this project in a great position to succeed in the proposed location and especially within the local community.”

Johnson added, “This landmark project will be developed in collaboration with a strong local team based in Newcastle and will require the establishment of an entirely new industry in Australia. I am very confident that this project will play a crucial role in providing new opportunities for employment, establishing new business and the revitalisation of existing business looking to transition from existing industries”.

EDF Renewables operates seven offshore wind farms globally and a further five are under construction including one with floating technology in France.

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